The Last Time
by Venomous Angel 75
Summary: Max has discovered that Angel's alive and recruited Fang to help them break her out. The mission doesn't quite go as planned, but is hope ever truly gone?
1. Death

**Disclaimer: I do not claim any right to the Maximum Ride universe. I've had this idea in my head for a while and I've finally found the time to put it down on paper. Please review and much love.**

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><p>Though he tried to be less than obvious about it, Fang found himself glancing up at the sky more often than not as he and the others waited for Max to rejoin them. Each minute that passed without a sign of her caused the knot of worry in the pit of his stomach to tighten just a little more. His efforts to engage with the rest of the group were distracted at best.<p>

For one rare moment he could tear his eyes away, he glanced over at the kids that had been his family for the first fourteen years of his life. Gazzy held on to his still unconscious sister with Nudge at his side while Iggy moved around them, disinfecting, stitching and bandaging their various wounds. Dylan stood close by, still awkward, but definitely a part of the group as he handed Iggy whatever he needed.

Turning his attention to his own crew, Fang found that he couldn't have been more proud of them. Kate sat with Holden, scowling as he dabbed at the cut on her face with a cloth wet with his own blood. They had discovered that his blood healed them nearly as fast as it healed him. Maya and Ratchet lounged behind Fang with Star between them, her limbs shaking with exhaustion and the others handing her packets and packets of energy gel to replace some of the calories she had burned.

Fang had allowed Maya to wrap his broken ribs, but had forced the others to tend to themselves first. He was no stranger to being caked with blood, guts and dirt, so he could handle being grimy for a while longer so that the rest of them could clean up a little.

It was a small comfort that Dylan was much more obvious about his concern for Max, voicing his concerns every few seconds, even asking Ratchet if he had heard anything from her. Fang could see the expressions of the others starting to fall further into despair as Dylan kept worrying aloud.

Even as he felt a stab when Ratchet shook his head, Fang finally stood and faced Dylan. "It's Max, Dylan," he said with a confidence that he did not feel. "She's not just going to lay down and let them take her. We wait another ten minutes and then get out of here. She'll meet up with us later. That was the plan."

"Good to know someone actually cares what the plan was," a wry voice called from across the clearing.

Fang managed to control the jolt that went through him at the sound of her voice, instead letting Dylan run forward to check her over. Taking a deep breath, he turned to face her and felt the bottom drop out of his stomach.

Max strode across the clearing looking every inch the warrior he knew her to be and better than he could have ever imagined. She was spattered in blood from head to toe and her clothes were torn all to hell. The bare skin of her arms, neck and face were striped with thick, red welts that looked as though they'd burst with the slightest pressure, one of them running over her right eye and swelling it shut. Her knuckles were laid open and her lip was split, but she was already grinning as she saw the rest of them clustered together.

Dylan stopped in front of her, his hands outstretched and hovering just over her skin as he took in the extent of her injuries. Her eyes were warm as she looked up at him and carefully patted his cheek. With a worried smile, he pressed a light kiss to an unblemished spot of her forehead and stepped back to let Nudge and Iggy have their moments with her.

She waved off Iggy's sensitive fingers and gently pressed Nudge to her side, doing her best to mask the pain in her eyes. Her gaze flickered over to Fang, but darted away just as quickly as if she couldn't stand to look at him. She moved quickly over to Gazzy where he sat clinging tightly to his sister.

Pressing a kiss to Gazzy's forehead, she smoothed back Angel's tangled hair and smiled down at them both. "How's she doing, kid?" she asked, her voice thick and hoarse.

He shrugged up at her. "I don't know. She hasn't even moved yet."

Max felt for Angel's pulse, her expression betraying her relief as she felt the strong pulse of the girl's heart. "She'll be okay. It's not the first time we've been put under." She stood and ruffled his hair before facing the rest of the team.

"We need to get out of here. The whitecoats won't be long in tracking us down and we should be long gone by the time they do." Her eyes finally met Fang's directly and he nearly felt at his chest to make sure his heart was still beating, the emotions in her gaze were so strong. In an instant, her eyes were blank and he was left half wondering if he had imagined such deep pain and longing reflecting in the darkness.

"I really think that you all should come stay with us for a few days." She glared at Fang to stop his habitual protest. "I think it will be good for us to recuperate a little and it'll be help Angel if you're there when she wakes up. She's going to need comfort and you two were always close."

Avoiding Maya's look of panic, Fang nodded in agreement. He couldn't abandon Angel again just yet. They wouldn't stay long, but he had to make sure that she was going to be all right. Shoving his hands deep in his pockets, he looked over his team.

"Just a couple of days," he warned Max. "Then we're gone. We've got stuff to finish, too." He hated to see the quick flash of despair in her already pained gaze, but he had to make it clear. It wouldn't be good if she found out that it was just as hard for him to be around her as it was for her to be around him. He still wanted to rip Dylan apart for having been "made for Max" and when Gazzy had mentioned that Jeb had suggested Max and the other boy head for some resort to get close and - Fang shook his head. Thoughts like that would only get him in trouble.

Max shrugged as if it didn't matter. "Sure thing, just as long as you're there when she wakes up." She gave each member of the flock a squeeze and a kiss, even Dylan, and stepped back. "Okay. Gazzy, you ride with Angel in the car in case she comes around before you get home and Nudge, you be navigator from the air. Stay in touch and don't get caught.

"What about you?" Iggy said, suspicion thick in his voice.

She tucked her thumbs in her pockets and rolled her eyes. "I'll be along. I just need some alone time after all that. I'll catch up, what with the super-speed and all."

Apparently satisfied with that answer, Iggy shrugged and jumped into the air, his mottled wings snapping out to catch the breeze. Nudge fixed the earpiece of a purloined walkie-talkie set onto her ear and quickly followed. Fang helped Gazzy get Angel to the car and got them both settled in between Kate and Holden in the back seat. Star slid into the driver's seat and Ratchet climbed in on the passenger side. With a quick wave, Maya took off and then only Fang, Dylan and Max were left.

Fang watched the SUV drive off and tried really hard not to listen to the argument Max and Dylan were having about her going off on her own.

"No, Dylan. We've been over this. We are not meant to be together simply because you were 'made' for me. If you think that you'd have any chance at all with me if you keep trying to be my keeper, you've got another think coming. Go home with the flock and I'll catch up with you later," Max snapped, complete and utter irritation coloring her words.

Dylan looked as though he wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her, a sentiment with which Fang was very familiar, but he was too afraid of hurting her to even attempt it. "I can't just leave you here by yourself when you're in such bad shape. I doubt you can fly at regular speed with that wing, much less this super speed."

Fang's gaze snapped around at that and he saw that the second joint her left wing was twisted at a slightly off angle. A frown nearly crossed his face as he realized that she definitely wouldn't be able to fly with it like that. The knot of worry in his stomach tightened suddenly. How had he missed that?

"I don't care what you want or don't want," Max said, setting her feet in a slightly wider stance. "You will go with the others and you will make sure they get home safe. That is the best thing you can do for me right now. So, go!"

Fang let a small smile cross his lips as Dylan tried to protest again, but Max set her jaw in that special way and even Dylan could recognize that he'd been dismissed. With a scowl he nodded.

"Fine," Dylan said, his shoulders sinking in defeat. "But I'm coming back for you if you're not at the house in twelve hours." He carefully traced the curve of her cheek with his fingertip and pressed an extra gentle kiss to her lips. "Be safe."

Feeling out of place, Fang snapped out his wings and prepared to take off.

"Fang, wait."

Dropping his wings in surprise, Fang turned to face Max again.

She looked odd, nervous almost when she spoke. "Will you stay a minute? I need to talk to you."

Dylan stood behind her and moved close to her back. With an eye roll that only Fang could see, she shook her head. "Bye, Dylan."

The boy's hands curled into fists at her quick dismissal, but he unfurled his wings anyway and launched himself into the air. Both Max and Fang stood where they were and watched him until he disappeared over the tops of the trees.

"He's really improved," Fang said, his voice dripping with sarcasm and disdain. He looked over at Max, expecting her to have some sharp retort ready to fly and was taken aback when he saw the tears welling in her good eye. All of a sudden, the pieces of the puzzle came together in his head and he was cursing himself for not seeing it sooner. There wasn't anybody in the world who knew Max better than he. His voice lost all inflection as he said, "You're not coming back, are you?"

Slowly, she shook her head and his world crashed down around him.

He'd heard others say that their lives flashed before their eyes in moments of life-threatening events. He'd never experienced it himself until that moment and even then, it wasn't his own life he saw. It was hers. He saw her laying on her side on the floor of a dog crate with a strained smile on her face trying to reassure him that the electrode burns didn't hurt. He saw her spreading her wings for the first time and jumping off the roof of their house. He saw her sitting next to him on the ledge of a cave with her bright hair shining in the moonlight and looking more beautiful than he had ever seen her.

"Why not?" he managed to grate out.

Max sighed. "Because it's for the best."

He stalked up to her and got in her face. "Yeah? For the best? You think they're going to take you and leave the rest of us alone? You think they're actually going to honor any deal you attempt to make with them?"

She tore her gaze away from his face, unable to look him in the eye. "I don't really have a choice with this. If there was any other way, don't you think I'd be trying that first?"

"There is always a choice, Max."

The fire was back as she glared at him. "Like there was a choice when you took off on us and DIED? Like there was a choice when you left for good? There is no choice this time, Fang. I will not make them watch me die."

Her words hit him like bullets, tearing through all the softest parts of him and leaving him watching the blood seep out. "What are you talking about?"

She laughed, the sound bitter and sharp. "I'm talking about how I will not be alive much longer and I need you to help the rest of the flock until they can stand on their own."

He grabbed her biceps and shook her hard. "You can't die."

She cried out as welts burst under his hands and her knees gave out from the pain. She collapsed against him and he let go of her shoulders to wrap his arms about her waist to keep her from falling. As carefully as he could, he lowered them both to the ground.

"Where?"

Max put a shaking hand to her side and pulled at the hem of her shirt. "The jellyfish kid had a stinger, too. Venom."

"Are you kidding?" Fang gently inched her shirt up so that he could see her side and the sight nearly made him empty his stomach. Instead of the smooth, toned flesh he remembered, her skin was mottled black and blue around a puncture wound the size of a dime. Every artery and vein extending outward was a deep, dark purple, standing out in relief against skin so pale it was as if she had been drained of blood. Even as he watched, the poison pumped through her body, killing off the live tissue with every beat of her heart.

Anger filled him. How could she have been so reckless, so selfish? His heart pounded in his chest and air was getting difficult to come by. "You should have said something! Holden-"

"Couldn't have done anything. I was already gone when I got here," she gasped and knocked his hands away. "Don't touch. Venom might transfer." Even so close to death, she was clinging to the illusion that it was no big deal.

With his brain in a riot of emotion and stalled thoughts, he just watched as she scooted a little ways away to lean against a fallen tree. Her skin was ashen and she rested with her eyes closed so long that he was worried she had gone. Relief spiked through him for a brief second when her eyes opened again and focused on him.

"You have to take care of them, Fang. Iggy's not ready, Dylan has no clue and don't even get me started on Angel," she said quietly. "You are the only one that can possibly make sure they make it to their next birthdays. They're sitting ducks without one of us there."

The words sounded stupid even as they left his mouth, "Why me?"

Her breath hitched and she did her best to keep her composure. "Because there's no one else." Her voice broke on the last word and the mask finally crumbled. Tears rolled steadily from her eye and her body shook with the force of her sobs.

Fang was at her side in an instant, pulling her against his body despite her weak protests. Gently, he stroked her hair and held her until the flood waned. She tried to push away from him, but he refused to let her. If she was going to die soon, he was going to hold her for as long as he could. This was one time he wasn't going to let her do whatever she wanted.

"You should go," she mumbled into his shirt, already too weak to move away.

He shook his head and cautiously shifted her so that she sat across his legs. "I'm not leaving you."

She snorted. "I've heard that before."

Emotion flared through him and he pulled her away from his chest so that he could force her to look him in the eye. "I left to protect you, to give you and the flock and your mission the best chance at survival. I never stopped loving you, Max. I never will." And, mindful of the welts striping her face, he pressed his lips to hers.

When he released her, a sad smile twisted her mouth. "See you on the other side," she whispered and her body went completely limp in his arms.

Maximum Ride was dead.

Fang wasn't sure how long he sat there, cradling the body of the greatest warrior he had ever known, the only woman he ever had and ever would love. He was unaware of the tears streaming down his face and of the soft footsteps of twenty armed men creeping into a circle around him.

Another slipped through the guard and knelt carefully next to him. "You have to let her go, Fang."

When he got no response from the mourning teen, Jeb Batchelder reached out and laid a hand on the boy's shoulder and got a swift elbow to the ribs. Grunting as he fell over and certain that his ribs were at least cracked, he said, "We're taking her whether you like it or not. She belongs to us."

Fang lifted his gaze to Jeb's face. "Over my dead body. You destroyed her!"

The scientist flinched away from the freezing cold fury in Fang's eyes, but his still held firm. "We don't want to hurt you, Fang. The rest of the flock needs someone to lead them in her absence. Jut put her down and back away."

"Fuck you."

Jeb sighed and got to his feet. "Have it your way."

Fang heard the soft pop of a gun and felt a sharp sting in his shoulder. Almost instantly, his vision began to swim and he started to lose feeling in his hands and feet. He tried to stand, but the toxin was moving too fast and soon his entire body had gone numb. Jeb motioned two of the team forward and they lifted Max away from him, carrying her out of his sight.

When he woke several hours later, all that was left of her was a single white and tan mottled feather clutched in his bloodstained hand.


	2. Aftermath

**Disclaimer: I claim no right to the Maximum Ride universe. Let me know if you want me to continue this story. I have one more chapter, but I'm not sure if I should put it up. Please review! Much Love!**

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><p>Fang felt as though he were flying with fifty pound weights strapped to each of his limbs as he made his way home in a daze. Never once in his whole life had he considered a world without Max and the reality of it was still sinking in.<p>

After waking from his drug-induced nap with her blood still on his hands, he had lost complete control of himself. He couldn't remember anything that had happened, but his knuckles were flayed open and he could barely swallow because his throat was so raw. He wouldn't be surprised if he started coughing up blood.

He took a dizzying dip as he momentarily forgot to flap his wings, but recovered quickly. The cold air did little to revive him, but he knew that it was imperative that he get back to the flock. It was a certainty that he would be non-functional for quite some time, but she had been right. There was no one else to lead them. There was no one else that could be considered to take her place.

Setting his jaw, he pushed onward with the single-minded determination that often had her yelling at him for one reason or another. Once, it had even gotten him a kiss.

He plunged toward the earth again, and again managed to recover before he became a bird-kid pancake. That kiss. The kiss that had changed everything for him. The kiss that had made him realize exactly what she meant to him and exactly what he would do to keep her safe. Sure, his brain had started making the transition from seeing her as his sister to seeing her as the love of his life prior to that, but the feel of her mouth on his had awakened a possessiveness inside of him. He knew her far too well to try to curb her impulses and he definitely hadn't wanted to take over being leader, but he had felt physical pain every time she looked at him with doubt and fear in her eyes. She had been his world.

Leaving her had been the stupidest thing he had ever done. But being there, seeing her torn between her mission (along with Dylan) and him, the right choice was clear. He had thought that his letter would have been enough to reassure her that he hadn't left because he didn't love her. He had left because he loved her too much. If the world was really coming to an end and if she was really supposed to save it and if she couldn't focus on doing what she needed to because he was there, then he couldn't doom the world (and her) because he was too selfish to let her go.

And now, here he was, flying home alone with her blood on his hands and her feather in his backpack. He would never again get to see that special smile on her face as she watched the others play in the ocean. He would never again lay beside her in a cave or in the woods or even in their own beds and know that she was safe because he could hear her breathing. He would never again feel the soft tremble of her body as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed a light kiss just below her ear.

With a hoarse shout, he grabbed his head, trying to force her from his brain long enough to let him get home alive. There is no one else. Her words echoed in his head and it was just the push he needed to make it.

He wasn't sure how long it took for him to the house that he had once called home, but what seemed like endless hours of flight later, he managed to catch sight of it in the distance. Relief and dread swept through him in equal parts as he approached the familiar shingled roof. As he circled around to land, the skylight was kicked open and Ratchet and Iggy were scrambling up out of the house to watch him land.

Fang nearly ate it as he dropped the last few feet to the roof and his knees gave out from sheer exhaustion.

Ratchet was right there to brace him, saying, "Whoa, man. Take it easy."

Iggy was right on his other side. "Hey, Fang. Glad you made it." He waited a second while Fang recuperated and tilted his head to the side. Unable to see his friend, he lifted his face to the sky and asked, "Where's Max?"

Fang opened his mouth and shut it again, his eyes locking with Ratchet's and seeing the sympathy even behind the sunglasses. He was saved from answering by an ear-splitting shriek of pure misery from the house below.

"What the hell?" Iggy swore and practically dropped him to race back into the house.

Ratchet just gripped his shoulder. "I'm really sorry."

Fang nodded and straightened away from his friend. "Thanks." The word felt like sandpaper. Squaring his shoulders, he followed Iggy back into the house. As he moved down the steps, he noticed the entire group had gathered in the living room around a hysterical Angel and their faces turned toward him almost as one.

"What's going on, Fang?" Nudge asked, she looked so young and scared as she tried to comfort the sobbing girl. "What happened?"

He felt a thousand years old as he looked into the faces of his first family. Gazzy was white as a sheet, staring at him with huge blue eyes. Iggy wasn't looking at him, but Fang knew he had already gotten the message by the sound of his breathing. "I-"

Angel broke away from the rest of them and threw herself into his arms. He had to call on the last of his reserves to keep from shattering right there in front of them all as he clutched her tightly to his chest. "Max isn't coming back," he finally bit out.

Dylan pushed to the front and got right in his face. "What do you mean she's not coming back?"

"I mean that she's not coming back."

Dylan looked as though he couldn't quite process what he was hearing. "Why not?"

White hot rage flared to life and Fang practically roared, "Because she's DEAD!"

Angel seemed to sob even harder and both Gazzy and Nudge burst into tears at his blunt and enraged delivery. Iggy lost all color in his face and sat down very suddenly. His own team wore varying expressions of shock.

Dylan stood frozen for a few seconds and then struck out with his fist, catching Fang across the face and nearly making him drop Angel. Maya was there, silent and quick, pulling Angel from his arms as Dylan shouted, "What did you do to her?"

Exhaustion dropped away and Fang wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. Quick as lightning, he punched the other boy twice even as the others were starting to protest.

"Dylan, I don't think that -" Iggy started, but the boy was too far gone in his grief and rage to listen to reason.

"He was the last one with her," Dylan snarled. "She looked just fine when I left."

Fang narrowed his eyes and Gazzy shrank back against Nudge. "She was dying when you left." His hands curled into fists. "You didn't know her well enough to figure out when she was hiding something."

Dylan opened his mouth to retort, but Kate stepped between them with Iggy at her back.

"That's enough, boys," she said. "We have plenty to deal with without the two of you going at each other. Go get cleaned up, Fang. You," she snapped, pointing at Dylan. "Can go take a spin around the Rockies until you can come back and behave."

Iggy grabbed a hold of Fang's shoulder and dragged him back toward the bedrooms while the rest of the gang kept Dylan from having a clear path. When they were in the hallway, Fang shook off Iggy's grip and slumped against the wall. The red-head stood there with his hands deep in his pockets.

"Was it bad?" he asked quietly.

Fang looked up at his friend and nodded.

Silent tears streamed down Iggy's face. "Wer-were you with her, at least?"

"Yeah. I held her as long as I could," Fang said. He would spare them the details if he could. "She was - satisfied."

Iggy scrubbed a hand over his face and sighed.

Fang straightened away from the wall and slid his bag off his shoulders. "I'm going to take a shower and then we can talk." A wave of dizziness hit and he drew a breath. "Maybe sleep after the shower, but we'll figure it out."

"We'll be okay. All of us," he reassured Iggy and slipped into the bathroom. Locking the door behind him, he dropped his pack on the floor and stripped off his shirt as he turned on the water. His control was hanging by a thread and he was nearly ready to lose it again when a soft knock came at the door.

He stumbled over and flipped the lock quickly, the bottom of his stomach dropping out when he saw who it was.

Maya stood outside with a pile of clothes and a towel in his hands. "Thought you might need these." Her familiar brown eyes widened as she saw him. She reached out and put a hand on his abdomen, the heat of her touch burning him. "Damn, you look like you've been beaten like hell."

Without thinking, he recoiled. He knew that she was different; he knew that she was her own person, but even so, he couldn't quite manage to look her in the eye as he took the offering and stepped back.

Deliberately, she pulled her hand back and slid it into her pocket. Her voice trembled in a way that hers never would have as she spoke. "I'm sorry. I-I didn't think about...I'll go." She whirled around to dash down the hall, but he grabbed her arm.

"No," he said firmly as he finally dragged his gaze up to meet hers. It felt like a sucker punch to the gut, but he reminded himself again that she was someone completely different. "Don't. I'm just - It's hard."

She nodded slowly. "If you say so."

He squeezed her gently and let go, forcing his brain to remember that she was her own person. He refused to give in to the desire to pretend that she was still alive. Closing the door as she moved back down the hall, he flipped the lock again and leaned hard against the wood. It tore him apart to see her and it was completely unfair to the both of them. With a low growl, he stripped off the rest of his clothes and, ignoring the pain of abused muscles and broken hearts, he climbed under the spray.

Relief washed over him with the water and he simply stood there letting it sluice down his body. The layers of sweat and blood slowly melted from his skin, taking with it what small amount of self control he had managed to regain on the flight home. Soon his limbs were shaking too violently to support him and he crashed to his knees in the tub. The tears spilled from his eyes again, but he could almost pretend that it was simply the water running over his face. And though he made no sound, he let it all go.

Seconds, minutes, hours later - he had no idea -, Fang got to his feet and gave himself a quick once over with a bar of soap before shutting off the water. Feeling empty and drained, he toweled off, smeared ointment over his ruined knuckles and wrapped his ribs before pulling on the spare set of clothes. He hung the towel up on the rack and scooped up his backpack before stepping back into the world.

Nudge was right there, taking his hand and pulling him down the hallway to the bedrooms. He made as if to head for his old bedroom, but Nudge tugged on him and shook her head. "I think you should stay in her room," she said, her normal ebullience dulled by their loss. When he made to protest, she set her jaw and folded her arms. "Dylan's in your room anyway."

His scowl would have been enough to send any of his own team running, but Nudge just opened Max's door. She gave him a gentle push and shut the door behind him.

Instantly, a thousand memories crowded into his brain and as he took a deep breath of air, he nearly collapsed under their weight. Almost in a daze, he stumbled toward her bed. The sheets were still unmade, as if she had just gotten up for breakfast. His pack slipped from nerveless fingers and he tipped over onto the bed face first. Her scent still clung to the fabric and he inhaled a lungful of mountain air, feathers and sunshine. His fingers curled into a fist, clutching the comforter as if it were his only tie to life and he swiftly drifted off to sleep.

Some time later, a small noise pulled him from a state of blissful nothingness and his eyes snapped open. He heard the noise again, a soft sniffle and the creaking of the door. Sitting up, he was unsurprised to notice that he wasn't alone in bed either. Angel lay next to him, her pale skin blotchy from crying and her breathing erratic though she slept from pure exhaustion. Total was already asleep across her feet. Raising his eyes to the door, he jerked his head at Gazzy and Nudge. They moved forward and climbed onto the bed with him. Fang shifted so that Angel and he were right in the middle, allowing Gazzy to curl up on the other side of Angel and Nudge to wedge herself in against Fang's back. He felt her bury her face against his shoulder blades and his shirt was quickly dampened from her tears.

There was a soft click as the door was shut and the bed dipped as Iggy joined them on the other side of Nudge. Fang had never been a touchy-feely person, but laying there with his first family around him as they mourned the glue that had held them all together simply felt right. Angel grabbed his hand and one by one, the others added their own and they all took comfort in the touch.

The next few weeks were a blur in which he managed to function simply because his body was on autopilot. He set ground rules for the house, assigning each of the kids something to do to keep the place in order as now there was nearly twice the population that it usually held. Most of his own team hadn't ever been to the mountains and so he set up little day trips for them all to take to give them a reason to get out of the house and learn something about the area. He also had them training in rotations, each working to their own strengths, much like Max had always done. He kept himself busy with research and organization and training so that most of the time he was too exhausted by the time he went to bed to even dream.

Every so often, he would have a brief space of time to himself with nothing to do and that was when his darkest moments happened. Usually it was when he'd run into his room, her room, to grab something and he would get struck all over again by the familiarity of the space. He would remember the nights when they were young that he would wake up to the muffled sounds of her nightmares and creep from next door to wake her up. He would then sit with her on the window seat, sometimes speaking, sometimes not, until she felt safe enough to go back to sleep. And later nights when he snuck over for no other reason than to breathe in her scent and feel her under his fingers because he couldn't stand another second without being by her side, without reassuring himself that she was still there.

He had known she would be upset by his leaving, that she would hate him, but he hadn't ever considered that she would think that he didn't love her anymore. She had been his entire reason for existence and taking off had nearly killed him, but he had felt that if it gave her, if it gave their family even the slightest chance of better odds of survival, then there was no choice at all.

And then there was one night that he couldn't quite manage to keep the thoughts at bay. As he lay on his bed trapped in a whirlwind of memories instead of dreams, a soft, cool hand pressed against his face and a whisper drifted through his mind.

Wake up, Fang.

He shoved hard against the voice, somehow craving the pain of his memories because they were his last connection to Max. He was sitting on the ledge of a cave somewhere in the woods, his lips still tingling from kissing Max and cursing the luck that she felt running was preferable to kissing.

Wake up, Fang.

He scowled and shoved again, this time a small cry jolted him from his dreams. Blinking eyes heavy with sleep and confusion, he glanced over the side of his bed to see Angel sitting on the floor several feet away. She blew a strand of hair out of her face and gave him an annoyed look.

"That you?" he said, irritation blooming in his chest that she would stick her fingers into his brain.

She huffed and got up. "I was just trying to be nice about waking you up instead of screaming in your ear." Her bottom lip trembled and she instantly looked like the seven-year-old that she was.

With a sigh, Fang sat up and scooted over, holding the sheets out so that she could slip in next to him. It was sometimes hard to remember that she was still just a little girl despite her ability to delve into cognitive thought.

She picked up Celeste and got into bed next to him, her small arms folding the bear tight against her body as Fang's folded around her. "Jeb's going to call tomorrow."

The string of very strong words and memories flashing through him caused her to physically recoil from him and Fang instantly shut down that line of thought. He squeezed her gently in apology and rubbed the spot at the base of her wings to soothe her. "What for?" he asked without all the venom that he felt.

Angel shrugged. "I can't tell you, but you have to listen to him. It's - it's important."

Fang said nothing.

"Please, Fang? Promise me?"

He made the mistake of looking down into her giant blue eyes and knew there was no point in resisting. "Fine. I will listen, but that's all, Angel. I can't promise anything else."

A brilliant smile, the first since the day they broke her out, spread across her face. "Thanks."


	3. Meeting

**Disclaimer: I claim no right to the Maximum Ride universe. Please review!**

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><p>The next morning Fang woke alone, despite Angel having conned him into letting her stay and subsequently commandeering eighty percent of the bed. He sat up rubbing his neck and stretched big enough that several muscles popped in quite a painful way. That little monster was going to get it, he thought and shook his head.<p>

Laying back down, he stared at the ceiling as he contemplated the promise she had extracted from him last night. His gut roiled at the very thought of talking to the man that had essentially ripped Max from his arms. He wanted nothing more than to punch a hole through the man's chest, rip out his heart and crush it before Jeb's eyes. Jeb had practically done that to them, to Max on multiple occasions and it was no less than the man deserved. He had no idea why Angel would be so adamant about him talking to the traitorous scientist, but he had promised her.

He punched his pillows with a snarl and finally rolled to his feet to join the rest of the group in their morning sparring. Pulling on a set of sweats, he took a moment to touch the feather that was his last connection to the only woman he had ever loved. The only woman for whom he would live and die.

Sound of shouting echoed down the hall and Fang shook his head with a sigh. He had no idea how she had managed to keep the flock in line at their current age, much less when they had been younger.

He could hear Gazzy and Iggy, and Nudge and Star getting into it at increasingly higher volumes as the seconds wore on and he was certain that it had to do with some kind of sabatoge to the girls' daily beauty routine. He had already had to break up quite a few brawls and he was so not in the mood to deal with it. He rapped on the door of his old room, now Dylan and Ratchet's, and pushed it open.

Ratchet was chilling on the bed, headphones and sunglasses firmly in place. Dylan was MIA.

"Ready for sparring?" Fang asked, his tone heavy with thoughts of what might happen.

The other boy shrugged. "As long as I get to eat first. Iggy's up, yeah?"

Fang nodded.

Ratchet grinned. "Thank god. That thing Gazzy tried to make yesterday was deadly."

Fang rolled his eyes. Gazzy had tried to make breakfast, like, make breakfast and it definitely hadn't gone so well. It really hadn't been that bad, but the kid had tried to use his improvised flamethrower to cook the toast and it really hadn't gone over well, for the toast or the house. "His toys are officially banned from the kitchen, so you should be safe there, at least."

"Good," Ratchet said and got up to follow him down the hall.

The morning passed without much incident and Fang was getting wound tighter with every minute that passed as he anticipated the call Angel had warned him about. It was mid-afternoon by the time the phone rang and Fang had to clench his fists tight to keep from throwing the phone across the room. Instead, he picked it up and said, "What do you want?"

"Hello, Fang."

Fang's stomach twisted in awful knots as the familiar voice of his former savior drifted across the line. "What do you want?" he said again.

"I'm guessing Angel told you I would call?" Jeb said, his voice even and unsurprised.

"Good job. Now, what-"

Jeb sighed and cut Fang off. "I want to see you, have a sit down of sorts."

Fang was practically vibrating with anger, but his voice remained cool. "And why would I want to do that?" He jerked as a small, cool hand slipped into his and he glanced down at Angel's disapproving expression. He shook his head, but the furrows in her brow only got deeper.

"We need to speak urgently, Fang. This is a matter of life and death and it can't wait because you're not man enough to face me. I expected more from you, Fang."

Fang's hand tightened convulsively around Angel's and she poked him hard in the side. He unlocked his fingers and tried to shake her off. She wouldn't let go.

"So I'm not man enough because I don't want to see you ever again after all you've done? You abandoned us, you betrayed us, you tried to kill us."

Jeb almost growled at that. "I did no such thing."

Fang swallowed and snapped, "You killed Max."

There was a long silence on the other end of the line. "No I didn't. She killed herself. If she hadn't been so reckless, so stupid to take on a facility with the rest of you just to save Angel…"

"You knew she would. There is nothing Max was more than loyal. You knew perfectly well she would come after Angel the second she realized that she was alive. You knew what she would do to keep the rest of them, the rest of us, safe."

Another silence. Then, "Be that as it may, it is of great importance that I see you very soon. The fate of the world hangs in the balance."

"What, Max is gone, so Plan B? I don't think so." Fang tried to ignore the determined poking of the girl beside him and fixed a glare on her face when that didn't work. "Stop, Angel."

"You have to go, Fang. You have to meet him," her blue eyes were wide and earnest. "You have to go."

He could feel his resolve crumbling and broke his gaze from hers.

"This is important, Fang," Jeb said again.

"One hour. Just me," he agreed almost against his will. Something was nagging in the back of his mind and he knew that there would be no peace until he had the confrontation his more animalistic side was craving.

Jeb exhaled loudly. "Excellent." He rattled off his location and said, "I shall see you soon, Fang."

Fang replaced the handset in the charging cradle and stood very still for some time. Angel still stood by his side, but she could probably see very well that he wasn't in the mood for any more prodding. That didn't stop her.

"I'm glad you're going. You need to see him," she said, her voice quiet and confident.

He glared down at her again and she finally released his hand. "I swear, Angel. If that was you…"

She shook her head violently. "It wasn't."

With a quiet sigh, he rubbed a hand across his face. "Bring them in, okay?"

Angel nodded and took off skipping, her mood oddly buoyant. She had been nearly as bad off as he in the first few weeks following Max's death. He knew that she felt responsible for it all and it was hard to watch their youngest carry so much on her narrow shoulders.

Fang moved woodenly down the hallway, contemplating standing the bastard up, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that it was actually incredibly important that he meet Jeb for some reason. He slipped into his room to throw a few things into his old backpack and headed back to the living room, stopping to knock on the door of his old room on the off chance that Ratchet and/or Dylan was in the room. Not expecting anything out of the ordinary, he didn't wait after the knock to stick his head in. Big mistake.

"Hey guys, meeting in the-" he started, and then his brain went completely blank, except for, "What. The. Shit?"

Dylan and Maya were sitting on the bed in what could only be described as a passionate embrace. His one-time enemy-turned-teammate and current-enemy-turned, well, -enemy broke apart at his words. Maya quickly jumped off of Dylan's lap and ran her fingers through her hair, her cheeks flaming red. Dylan simply leaned back and glared at Fang.

He could barely believe what he had walked in on and he for sure wasn't ready to deal with it, so he just said, "Huh," and walked back out. He had always prided himself on his observational abilities, one tended to see much more when they lurked in the shadows, but this thing between the two appeared to have been going on for a little while. He shook his head at his blindness. He continued on down the hall, passing by the other doors just in case there was something else going on that he hadn't noticed. How could he have not seen it?

Kate glanced up from the laptop as he wandered back into the kitchen and her eyebrows immediately shot up. "What happened to you?" she asked.

Irritation flashed through him that he was so obviously thrown. Immediately, he schooled his features into their normal mask and dropped his bag on the table. The faint sounds of a heated discussion drifted down the hallway.

"Saw something I really didn't want to," he muttered as he pulled a can of Coke from the fridge.

Comprehension smoothed her face and a smirk twisted her mouth. "Finally noticed, yeah?" she snickered as her attention moved back to the screen.

A shudder ran through him and he just pushed it all to the back of his brain. "Don't even want to know."

She looked up at him again with sympathy in her sharp gaze. "You've been a little preoccupied. I think you're allowed some off time."

Fang just drained the soda and tossed the can in the trash. Grabbing a couple more from the pantry, he shoved them into his pack alongside several energy bars. "Hey, can you look up this address?" He gave her the information that Jeb had passed along and waited as she worked her magic on the internet.

"Taking a trip?" she asked.

He nodded. "Something like that."

Just then, Maya slipped into the kitchen. Dylan was not far behind. Maya had a look on her face that made Fang's heart ache. He couldn't remember how many times he had seen that look on Max after she had caught one member of the flock or another doing something that they clearly shouldn't be. Dylan looked exactly like a member of the flock after Max got that face.

"Fang," Maya started, but he shook his head.

"Don't want to know, don't care," he said. "I'm taking off for a day or so. Jeb wants to talk."

All of their expressions shifted to downright murderous. "And you're actually going?" Dylan snapped.

Fang felt his gaze harden. "Yes. We have unfinished business."

"I want to go with you," Dylan said immediately, his hands curling into fists.

Seeing the hurt creep across Maya's face, Fang shook his head. "No. You're staying here. I'm not putting anyone else in his way. There's just too much risk." Though he hated to admit it, he and Dylan had reached some unspoken truce after they each had calmed down. It was definitely true that there was no way he was going to allow the irritant to accompany him to murder Jeb, but he also didn't want to see Maya hurt the same way he was hurting. All in all, he was glad that they each had found someone else to focus on, someone that could return the affection.

Just then, the rest of the group filtered in, Nudge and Iggy both covered in a thick layer of mud. She was looking positively livid beneath the muck, but Iggy looked perfectly content. The rest of them were alternately snickering and rolling their eyes.

Fang sighed and once again lamented that Iggy could not see the glare that was directed at him. "Seriously? Not even one day, Ig?"

Gazzy flopped into a seat at the table and eyed Fang's backpack. "What's going on?"

The eldest scowled internally at the cautiously casual question from the nine year old. The nervousness wasn't entirely noticeable, but Fang had spent years listening to the changes in the boy's voice. "Jeb called and he wants me to meet him. Says it's important."

The contentment vanished from Iggy's face. "He can go to hell. That's what you told him, right?"

"Of course not," Angel chimed in. "It is important that he go see Jeb." She ignored the look that Fang gave her.

Iggy shook his head. "I highly doubt that." He shook his head, sending drops of mud flying everywhere and the girls screeching out of the way.

"I'm only going to be gone a day or two," Fang said as he scanned the directions Kate handed him. "I'll call before I meet and after I get out. If it's more than two hours and you don't hear from me, you'll know something's happened." He tried not to see Dylan and Maya's hands twine together between their bodies. However, he did smile a little when Gazzy made a gagging noise behind his hand.

Star hopped up onto the counter and caught the soda that Holden tossed her. "What if something happens?"

"Wait two more hours to be sure and come get me," Fang said dryly.

Angel shook her head. "That won't be necessary. You'll be just fine."

"What are you, psychic now?" Kate asked with an eye roll.

The youngest member of the team crossed her arms and stuck out her bottom lip. Her large blue eyes narrowed dangerously and Fang immediately shifted directly into her line of sight. "If anything happens while I'm gone, there's going to be hell to pay."

Angel kept her stance for a moment, obviously considering whether she was going to challenge him. He immediately thought of all the times she had tried to assume control of the flock and the disastrous results. Her eyes went wide again and dropped to the floor. "Yes, Fang."

She wasn't a bad kid, just a little full of herself sometimes. Fang slung his backpack over his shoulder and held out a fist. The flock stacked their own on top without any hesitation. The others were a little slower, but they had been through it before and followed suit. Tapping the back of each hand (even Dylan's), he tightened the straps a little and nodded decisively.

"See you in a couple of days."

Most of the group followed him up to the roof and right before he leapt off into open air, he turned and reminded them, "The house had better be standing and in good working order when I get back. No holes in the walls or anything." He fixed his gaze on Gazzy, Iggy (who remained blissfully ignorant) and their new partner in crime, Holden. Both Gazzy and Holden nodded, Iggy only doing so when Gazzy punched him in the side.

Fang waved one last time and launched himself off the roof. Snapping his wings open, he almost smiled with the rush of air through his feathers as the draft caught them and pulled him up to greater heights. No matter what was going to happen, he was always content for the first brief moments of flight. There was nothing to compare with the sense of power and the feeling of freedom that flowed through him as his wings cut through the open space and carried him ever higher. Maybe love. Love was the one thing he had deemed better than flying, but it was also the one thing that had brought him the most pain of all.

There had been quite a lot of events in his life that had scarred him in one way or another, each new twist seeming to carve deeper lines than the last. The first ten years of his life had certainly been less than ideal, living at the School and participating in whatever testing the whitecoats had deemed necessary to "learn." His skin still bore the faint outlines of the electrodes they had stuck to him at every possible opportunity. He still woke in the middle of the night drenched in sweat as his subconscious remembered the terrifying scenarios they had forced him to watch and analyze.

Then Jeb had broken them out and things had stabilized for a while. He had nearly two years of regular scars earned by falling out of trees and getting punched for stealing all the towels while certain younger siblings were in the shower. And Jeb had disappeared right before his twelfth birthday. That month had been hard, watching Max try to keep herself together for the sake of the rest of them.

The assignment of Max's mission to save the world hadn't done the flock much good as they soon found themselves hungry and dirty and beaten at every turn. Fang himself had come close to dying several times, had actually died once, and the rest of the flock hadn't been in much better shape.

Leaving Max after he had finally broken through her resistance had been the hardest thing of all, to have found the perfection of being that was standing at her side and then tearing all of it to shreds to save her had nearly killed him. Instead, it had killed her.

Those were the worst of his scars. The ones that he couldn't see, but felt as though they were still raw and open and filled with shards of glass that stabbed deep each time he took a breath. He would make Jeb pay.

Some time later, he spotted the facility that Jeb had directed him to and dropped down low to land right in front of the door. He flipped his phone open and typed out a quick text to the others and slipped it back in his pocket. His practiced eyes took in the security cameras and the small square plates that would probably shift and reveal laser guns or something should the facility feel threatened. They probably should have activated their defense systems for his arrival, but he wasn't going to make a move until he was certain that it would have the maximum impact. After all, there was no point on starting the search and destroy mission if nothing important got destroyed.

He swung his pack off of his shoulder and pulled out a Coke to sip on as he waved to the main security camera. He flipped it off, too, just for good measure.

"I raised you with better manners, Fang."

Fang carefully kept his expression neutral, which seemed to be getting harder and harder by the day, and took a big gulp of his soda as he watched the man he had once trusted above all others move through the blast doors and step out to greet him. "You didn't raise me at all," he retorted.

Jeb's mouth pressed into a thin line, but he didn't rise to the bait. "I'm glad you're here. There's something important I need to show you." He watched Fang for a moment then turned to walk back inside.

"How do I know I'll leave under my own power and in the same condition in which I arrived?"

The scientist shook his head. "I was never out to hurt you, any of you. All I wanted was-"

"To make the world a better place through genetic manipulation?" Fang snapped. "Too bad we ended up being real people." Just seeing the man sent his anger soaring right past hot and into ice cold, the range in which he was at his most dangerous.

"I promise that you will leave whenever and however you want. We-I will do nothing to you but talk," Jeb swore as he held out his hand for Fang to shake. At the boy's hesitation, he said, "I swear it on Max's life."


	4. Resolution

**Disclaimer: I claim no right to the Maximum Ride universe. Whew. This was totally meant to be a one-shot, two-shot at the most. Hopefully you all enjoyed it. Please review. Much love!**

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><p>Fang's heart stopped just to hear her name on the man's lips. He was directly in front of him with a hand around his throat in an instant. "You don't get to say her name," he said, all emotion gone from his tone. Standing at six feet and six inches, Fang definitely towered over the man and his enhanced abilities made him significantly more dangerous. He gave the other man a small shake and let him go. "Hurry up and show me what I'm here for so that I can leave."<p>

Jeb nodded, visibly shaken and led the way into the facility. After a few corridors, he managed to regain the ability to speak. "I am sorry that I was vague on the phone, but I feel that this is something you need to see rather than just hear."

He halted right in front of a set of double doors with magnetic locks and turned to face Fang. "Please just keep in mind that all I ever wanted to do was help." With that, he swiped a key card across the lock and the doors popped open with a hiss. He motioned Fang forward.

Fang raised an eyebrow, his warning sense going into overdrive. Something was seriously wrong. "You're not coming with me?"

Jeb looked oddly deflated and shook his head. "It's best if I don't. Best for us both."

"How do I know you won't lock me in?"

The scientist handed him the key card and stepped back with his hands out.

Fang looked it over and narrowed his eyes at the man. He really didn't have much of a choice and despite the insistence of his bullshit detector, he had a stronger feeling that he needed to be beyond those doors. Pocketing the key, he glared at Jeb one more time and slipped through the doors.

The scent of pine and dust hit his nose and for a moment Fang was almost convinced that he had dreamed the last few hours. His senses were confused and wary as he stepped into a stadium sized room that contained a replica of their home and the fifty feet that surrounded it. Scorched trees and low brush ringed the elevated structure of their home. Deep in his gut, Fang felt a sense of foreboding. He wasn't going to like what he found here.

Hooking his thumbs through the straps of his backpack, he took a few running steps and launched into the air. A few strokes of his wings and he landed on the balcony/porch of the house. His stomach turned as he took in the paint that was weather-worn and the screen door that still had the hole in it from the time Iggy had accidentally blown himself through it.

With careful fingers, he slid the glass aside and stepped into a time warp. He could feel the slight tremble of his hands as he took in the clutter and the disarray that had been his home before Iggy and Gazzy had blown it up in their attempt to escape from Erasers sent to destroy them. His dark eyes absorbed everything as he moved slowly through the home he had lost, the home in which he had first known peace. Seeing nothing in the main rooms of the family room and the kitchen, he continued down the hallway, peering into each bedroom as he went. Angel and Nudge's room was empty, as was Iggy and Gazzy's. The bathroom and Jeb's former room also held nothing. A frown crossed his face as he noticed that the room that had been reconstructed as his own was torn to pieces and nearly everything in there was broken.

As if his body knew something that he didn't, Fang's heart beat hard and fast, almost painfully so, as he approached Max's room. Memories threatened to drag him under as he stopped in front of her door. Closing his eyes, the scent of her shampoo swirled around him and he could almost feel the ghosting of her fingers across his neck as he reached out to turn the doorknob. The brass turned easily under his hands, as it always had, and the door swung open on silent hinges.

It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the dim light and the reaction wasn't nearly as bad as he was anticipating as he gazed around her room. He took one step inside and then another. Soon he was standing at the foot of the bed with his knees pressed against the worn wood. So many nights of sneaking in here just to watch her as she slept to reassure himself that they were going to be okay. He could almost see her sitting at the window dressed in her usual white nightgown and staring out at the stars.

Her knees were drawn up to her chest and her hair spilled down her back in pale golden waves. He couldn't see her face as her forehead was pressed against the glass, but he could see the faint fog that her breath left on the window. He wanted to reach a hand out to touch her, but his dreams had always ended just as he was about to touch her shoulder. Yet, he couldn't resist the pull and soon he was moving toward the window seat with a hand outstretched, fingers aching to slide through her soft hair one last time. Just as he was about to touch her, he didn't lift his shoe far enough from the floor and the sole scraped across the wood, making a sound that was practically deafening in the extreme silence of the house. And all at once, the specter of the woman he loved turned and belted him across the face.

Fang stumbled back, reeling from the blow, and felt on his ass. Unlike all the other times he had experienced waking dreams, he had been able to touch her! To be honest, she had touched him, but it sent his heart rate through the roof and his stomach to the floor. He closed his eyes and whipped his head back and forth a couple of times before forcing his eyes open to see that she was still there, standing over him with her hands curled into fists and her hair in a riot around her face.

Every cell in his body stopped working the second he realized that he wasn't staring at an apparition or a ghost or some figment of his imagination. His face stung like hell and it was hard to believe anything else as the woman he loved slowly moved backward and folded into the window seat, assuming the position in which he found her.

Long minutes passed before he could draw a breath or hear anything beyond the pounding of the blood inside his head as his brain worked to process what had just happened.

Finally, muscle by muscle, his frame unlocked and he managed to rasp, "Max?"

No response from the figure huddled on the seat with her face pressed to the glass again.

"Max?"

Nothing.

He somehow managed to force his liquefied limbs into a standing position and lurched back to the window seat. He crashed onto the pillow next to her where he had always sat when joining her on her nighttime vigils against the nightmares. Seconds, minutes, hours passed as he tried to come to terms with the idea that Max wasn't dead. His eyes roved over the side of her face that was visible to him, drinking in every millimeter of her that he could see.

She was dressed in white scrubs rather than the nightgown he had initially thought she was wearing and her arms definitely bore the signs of the damage done to her that had caused her death. Thin pink lines stood out in relief against her pale skin, a testament to the welts that had covered her, of the poison that had killed her.

The urge to touch her grew too insistent to push aside and he reached out carefully to press the tips of his fingers against her arm. Her skin was cold to the touch. When she did not react, he cautiously slid his hand up her arm to her shoulder, then her neck until he held the curve of her jaw in his palm. His other hand shook as he brought it up to cradle the other side of her face and gently turn her to him. Bile rose in his throat as he took in the lines striping across her face, traveling over her her cheeks and forehead and cutting across her eye. A large yellowed bruise spread from her left cheekbone to around her eye.

When he finally managed to focus on her eyes, pain burst through his system to be replaced just as quickly with fury. Her gaze was empty. Not just empty of emotion or filled with calm, but completely and totally empty of any thought whatsoever. Fang couldn't stop the small sound of despair from clawing its way out of his throat as the wound of losing her was torn wide again.

His hands dropped from her skin as he fought against the darkness threatening to take him over. The desire to rip the entire scientific population to shred with his bare hands filled him, but even looking at her familiar face despite the complete absence of everything that made Max what she was brought him back down to earth. He would just settle for revenge against the man that had caused this whole situation with which to begin.

Blinking, he vaguely realized that Max had resumed her prior position with her scarred face pressed against the glass and her long limbs curled tightly against her torso. Her bright hair swung back over her face to cover it from his gaze and he was glad for the barrier as it covered the evidence of his worst failure. His failure to protect her.

He stood and allowed himself one last caress along the length of her arm as he said, "I'm so sorry, Max. They, and I, will pay for what we've done to you." His hand dropped to his side and Fang sighed. "I only ever wanted to give you what you needed, even if it wasn't me, even if you didn't know what it was."

Fang's steps were silent as he moved back through the house with one single purpose in his mind. Before the day was over the man responsible for Max's suffering would lay dead at Fang's feet.

It was a short trip back through the house and yard to the double doors through which he had come. A quick swipe of the key card over the center of the doors had them popping open and he was through them in an instant. Jeb looked up in surprise as Fang stepped out in front of him and stood. The dark-haired hybrid slid the pack from his shoulders, not caring where it fell, and grabbed the scientist by his collar to slam him against the wall for the second time that day.

"What did you do to her?" Fang snarled, his rage held in check by little more than a thread.

Jeb swallowed with difficulty and wheezed, "We didn't do anything but save her."

"Is that what you call saving her? Why couldn't you have just left us alone?" Fang said with a shake of the smaller man's frame. "None of this would have happened without you!"

Some fire returned to Jeb's gaze at that. "None of you would exist without me."

Fang dropped him with disgust. "Better that than being your puppets."

"We tried, but the one organ you can't replace is the brain. Not if you want the original personality to remain intact," Jeb explained from the floor. "We've done dozens of scans, tried scores of stimuli to try and figure out what's keeping her from healing completely, from coming back just the way she was. Resurrection's been successful on other subjects who were gone for much longer, but with her -." He sighed. "That house is the only thing that keeps her calm."

Fang curled his hands into fists to keep himself from squeezing the life from his former mentor. As much as he wanted to snap the man like a twig, deep down he knew that it wasn't what Max would have wanted. Well, she would have wanted it, but not the way it was about to go down. Instead, he said, "I'm taking her."

Jeb struggled to his feet, gasping and trying to find the words to protest, but a single glance from Fang killed the words in his throat.

"I am taking her and you will never, and I mean never, attempt to contact any of us ever again. Ever." He narrowed his eyes at Jeb, waiting for a verbal confirmation. The scientist's started to nod, but his gaze shifted beyond Fang to the door behind him. When his eyes opened wide, Fang risked it and shot a quick look over his shoulder only to feel as shocked as Jeb looked.

Max stood on the threshold, thin white fingers curled around the edge of the door and her dark eyes wandering around unfocused. Her features scrunched into something of a frown as she seemed to settle her gaze on Fang and then the man beyond him. Jeb stepped farther into her line of sight and she hissed. Her hands became claws against the metal and she shifted a little as though preparing to pounce.

Fang moved forward, drawing her eyes to him and blocking Jeb from her view. Her hands relaxed a little and one dropped to her side. Her body remained tense, but less like she was going to leap forward in a fury. He hooked his backpack strap with a foot and kicked it up into his grip, sliding his arms through the straps in a smooth movement without taking his eyes from her face. Slowly, he extended a hand to her, palm up. Every nerve in his body was wound tight as he waited for her to react. "Come with me, Max."

If he hadn't been watching her so carefully, he might have missed the flicker of recognition and emotion in her eyes. Surprise and relief crashed through him in a wave so powerful, he felt his knees give way for a brief second before he locked them against buckling. Though he worked hard to disguise it, his fingers began to shake slightly.

Max let her unfocused gaze slide down his arm to his hand and back up to his face.

"Just put your hand in mine, Max. We're leaving," he said, his voice a hoarse whisper that cracked on her name.

Abruptly, her eyes snapped into focus and she reached out to lay her palm against his. His fingers curled around her cool hand. Her eyelids slid shut and he gently pulled her against his body. Electricity tingled through him at the contact and he lowered his head to press a kiss to her forehead. Moving away from her was the hardest thing he had ever had to do, but his grip on her hand was tight as he tugged her after him.

Fang didn't even pause to glare at Jeb as he led her past the misguided scientist, through the halls and out into the open air. He operated on autopilot as he called a taxi from the small city, bundled her into it and directed the driver to the train station.

Time seemed to pass at the speed of sound and the crawl of a snail during the ride to the station. Pulling a thick wad of cash from his pack, he tossed a few bills to the driver as they got out. His grip on Max remained like steel as he pulled her alongside him to the ticket booth. The woman selling tickets gave them both odd looks, but handed over the tickets he asked for as he shoved the cash at her.

It was only when they were settled in a cabin and all the doors and windows were locked and all the shades drawn that he allowed himself to look at her. Though he kept his grip on her hand, his other hand lifted of its own accord and gently smoothed her hair away from her face. He traced the line of her jaw until he reached her chin and could slide a finger under the curve to lift her face to his.

His mask cracked, then shattered as her lovely dark eyes fluttered open and fixed on his. Everything inside him poured out through his gaze as he held her there in his arms. "That was the last time, Max. I'm never leaving you again. And you're never leaving me either. Not until we can go together."

Her whisper was so low that he wasn't sure he heard her, but his lips still twisted in a small smile at her words. "Took you long enough."


End file.
